Anne Hathaway May Take Over for Amy Schumer on ‘Barbie’

Amy Schumer has seen better days. Back in May, her big-screen vehicle Snatched was savaged by critics, who were pretty much the only people to actually go see the film. That followed a mini-controversy surrounding a video Schumer recorded of her and some chums on set performing Beyoncé’s single “Formation,” which now feels like a faint memory from a more innocent time. On top of all that, Schumer had to part ways with the live-action treatment of the Barbie doll line currently in the works at Sony. The good news, for Sony at least, is that they’ve found a suitable replacement. And she’s got Oscar bona fides.

In an unexpected but surprisingly logical move, Sony has brought in Anne Hathaway to discuss the possibility of taking over for Schumer. The actress has yet to sign on the dotted line, but I’d assume the time is of the essence for Sony, if they intend on keeping on track with the summer 2018 deadline they’ve set for themselves. The story, however, changes radically with its leading lady. The Deadlineitem breaking the news laid out the plot template for the upcoming film as follows:

Hathaway would play a character who lives in Barbieland, where she gets kicked out basically because she’s not perfect enough, is a bit eccentric and doesn’t quite fit the mold. She then goes on an adventure in the real world, and by the time she returns to Barbieland to save it, she has gained the realization that perfection comes on the inside, not the outside, and that the key to happiness is belief in oneself, free of the obligation to adhere to some unattainable standard of perfection.

This role made a lot of sense for Schumer. Her comedic persona is predicated on her imperfections, her proud insistence on being what Anne Helen Petersen describes as “too fat, too slutty, and too loud.” Anne Hathaway, however, very nearly meets the “unattainable standard of perfection” mentioned in the last line. Skinny, lovely, and charming, she’ll have to work the slow-moving disaster angle of her Colossalperformance even harder if she wants to be believable.